During his 25-year career, Demian has published over 120 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals including Nature, Science, Geophysical Research Letters, Geology, and the Journal of Geophysical Research. He has secured funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, industry partners, and a host of other funding agencies. He has led five major expeditions with the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) to study subduction zones and earthquakes through scientific drilling and borehole monitoring. His research brings together field expeditions and sampling, laboratory experimentation, and computer modeling to understand dynamic processes in the Earth’s crust - for example, how tectonic faults and earthquakes work, the movement of water in aquifers, and landslides.
Before being hired to lead the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), Demian was a professor and head of the Department of Geosciences at Penn State University. At UT, Demian holds the Scott Petty Jr. Endowed Director’s Chair for UTIG.
ACADEMICS
Ph.D., Earth Sciences University of California, Santa Cruz
B.A., Geology, summa cum laude, Williams College
AWARDS
In 2005, Saffer was awarded the Donath Medal, an early career scientist award offered by the Geological Society of America.
In 2009, he was one of twenty Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Awardees, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
In 2011, his research on clay minerals at Japan's Nankai fault earned him The Island Arc Award, a best paper award from Wiley Blackwell
In 2022, Saffer was selected to give American Geophysical Union's Francis Birch Lecture, its highest honor in the field of tectonophysics.
